


Loyalty

by CheshireCaine



Category: Bleach
Genre: Fanwork of Fanwork, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Loyalty, Mother Hen Kurosaki Ichigo, Mother Hen Shiba Kaien, Trope Subversion, Written to troll, no betas we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-09-18 07:18:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16990506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CheshireCaine/pseuds/CheshireCaine
Summary: “Nobody’s allowed to treat my friends that way.”In which Ichigo is best boi, Koyanagi needs protecting and Kaien casually threatens a noble on the sidelines.





	Loyalty

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cywscross](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cywscross/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Swinging Pendulum](https://archiveofourown.org/works/855577) by [cywscross](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cywscross/pseuds/cywscross). 



> _for Cross, because I love trolling you_
> 
> Written because everybody was too busy channelling their creativity into vague threats and I was watching on amused. Plus found families and reaffirming love is best. <3
> 
> This fic will make zero sense if you haven't read _Swinging Pendulum_ where we all learned to love (still in denial he has a first name) Koyanagi.

“And so fucking what?”

Senzō stilled in his seat, hand still gripping the armrest from his motion to leave.

“I don’t _care_ if you don’t like him. It’s up to me to decide who I ‘associate with’, and I’d _definitely_ never pick any fuckers like you!”

Ichigo’s growling bared his teeth like an animal, lips peeled back with more vitriol than Koyanagi had seen in some of the most bone-chilling hollows and serial killers.

“ _My_ friends are for me to choose. Not you pompous shitheads.”

Senzō’s eyes widened. _Hollow_.

“Leave.” Ichigo leaned into the face of the noble who was seriously unprepared for his fuck-up and stage-whispered. “Or there won’t be anything left for your family to mourn.”

Ichigo leaned and picked up the scroll that’d been thrown to the ground. He dusted it off, pressing together flat the ripped portion, then leaned over and placed it on the table in front of Senzō.

Ichigo was about to tuck in to his cooling lunch, then moved half of it to the man’s bowl, pausing then confessing: “A, uh, friend of mine used to get the same kind of shit from people because they were valuable, just not enough to accept them for who they were.” He slurped at some noodles. “Nobody’s allowed to treat my friends that way.”

Ichigo’s eyes drew across to Koyonagi’s poorly hidden confusion. “After we finish lunch, d’you mind going over some kidō with me again in your office? The scrolls aren’t. Necessarily, the most helpful.”

Senzō smirked, con man mask contoured to his face once more. “I’ve told you not to expect too much from them before, Ichi-chan.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Ichigo wasn’t flushed for once; strange. “I’m sure you’ll be the same level of arrogant once we’ve gone to ask for the twelfth’s captain for his opinion.”

Koyanagi blinked twice. “Urahara Kisuke. Why?”

“ _Because_ , Senzō. He knows more about breaking down kidō than you do probably.”

Ichigo grinned with blinding smugness at Senzō’s surprise.

_Kaien chose to look back and record Koyonagi’s response when Ichigo had come to his defence. It made so much clearer that his response to their superior’s insults were a farce. But now, Kaien could see. It may have been intrigue and boredom that drew him to Ichigo, but Ichigo’s charisma was definitely why the man had stayed to bask in Ichigo’s light. Ichigo beckoned people who needed someone to stand for them. Koyanagi was no exception. He may not have trusted the creepy zanjutsu instructor but—dropping the man a nod past Ichigo’s shoulder as he curled his hand around Nejibana’s hilt to escort the noble away—nobody Ichigo protected could ever have the audacity to betray him._

Senzō could explain the erratic tempers that could only be vented in battle, the intel of a weirdly coloured reiatsu and even Ichigo’s reluctance to unseal his zanpakutō now. He wondered what Urahara Kisuke had to do with it. It was clear that being swept under the cover of Ichigo’s loyalty was less a gift and more a favour to be returned forever because Ichigo would never expect it and deserved better.

He puffed a breath of air from his lips and chuckled while Ichigo stabbed at him with a judging quirk of the eyebrow, elbows resting on the office windowsill and rolling his shoulders; tense from boredom waiting for the captain.

Central 46 was gonna have to grow used to increasingly less helpful reports from now on, weren’t they?


End file.
